A/V Switchers are ‘Dying Because of Cost and Scale’ as IP Video Thrives: CEDIA Tech Talk

CEDIA Expo 2018 Tech Talk: Reps from the SDVoE Alliance, Netgear and Savant home automation proclaim the death of traditional A/V switchers with the rise of 10Gbps networks and video-over-IP technology.

Death to the matrix switcher! That was the theme of CEDIA Expo 2018 in general, and the big takeaway of “How to Design the Best AV over IP Ecosystem,” a Tech Talk about the shift from analog switching systems to networked-based media distribution.

“We’ve been using the matrix switch to move video around since television was invented,” said panelist Justin Kennington, president of the SDVoE Alliance. “So 75 years, this is how it’s done ….”

SDVoE (Software Defined Video over Ethernet) was launched in early 2017 “to help standardize on Ethernet as the transport technology for moving audio, video and control signals around, and to displace the matrix switch,” Kennington says.

Yes, he advocated for SDVoE technology during the session, but he argued more strenuously for IP-based media-distribution systems in general – a sentiment echoed by co-panelists Laurent Masia of Netgear, Tim Locascio of Savant, and integrator Matt Lavin of San Francisco-based Metro 18.

"The complexity around configuring the 10-gig networking is very minimal.”

— Integrator Matt Lavin
Metro 18

For Savant’s Locascio, the shift to digital A/V distribution can’t happen fast enough. He experienced the transition on a massive scale years ago as an engineer for telecom giant Lucent Technologies, as the company went from large, centralized gateways to “soft switches.”

And long before that, as Kennington points out, telecommunications happened, thanks to “people with tiny fingers literally plugging in wires from here to there ….”

We might imagine really tiny people living inside matrix switches, routing sources to rooms on command – an expensive proposition, to be sure.

Nothing Scales Like IP

The old circuit-based switching solutions are “dying because of cost and scale,” says Netgear’s Masia, dismissing “typical matrix switcher” solutions like “proprietary HDBaseT.”

These legacy solutions lock users into a fixed number of inputs and outputs – 4x4, 8x8, 64x64, etc. – whether the I/Os are needed or not. For this reason, integrators often spec switchers that are too big for a given project, just to be safe.

On the other hand, “Ethernet is expandable by nature,” Masia says, adding that IP makes an A/V distribution system “more compact and scalable.”

It also makes it more flexible when you consider that sources can broadcast to multiple A/V points simultaneously – over a single network cable. In the old matrix-switching days, it could be challenging to enable picture-in-picture or video tiling. IP-driven systems can do pretty much anything – and lots of it – as long as there’s an application for it.

“Basically, with the video processing receivers, you can have tiling on every single TV that you want,” Locascio says.

"Is that practical?" he wondered aloud. As a matter of fact, it is. Locascio’s home is filled with sports fanatics who like to watch multiple games at once. He says his son, who used to always watch TV on his tablet, is now “back to the TV again,” joining the rest of the family on game day, all thanks to A/V over IP and tiling.

Savant could leave the underlying technology to the Ethernet experts, while it focused on applications and a user interface built on SDVoE.

To be sure, home-technology integrators have struggled with networking in general – all the settings, security concerns, product selections, and quirks.

The complexity should diminish, however, if custom-centric manufacturers address IP complexities in their software. Savant does just that, according to Lavin, whose company beta-tested Savant IP video products last year and continues to use them today.

“We were anxious about having to raise our game with sophistication on the networking side,” he says. “Savant has automatic configuration as part of their Racepoint Blueprint [programming] software. The complexity around configuring the 10-gig networking is very minimal.”

So You’ve Decided on AV over IP: Now What?

Any A/V integrator watching this Tech Talk likely would be moved to take the IP plunge. So where do you go from here?

For starters, take advantage of the brand new SDVoE Academy, an educational program that launched during CEDIA. More details start at7:40.

1 Gbps or 10 Gbps? There’s something to be said for 1 Gbps networks that utilize existing category cable and networking gear. But 10 Gbps is way more awesome. The discussion begins at 11:00.

Fiber or copper? There’s a great (and surprising) discussion on the topic starting at 23:00.

Most technology products are not that visually appealing. Black boxes and tangled wires do not add to the character of a high-end smart home project. Luckily, our integrator readers have a number of clever solutions so these components don’t have to be visible in your next project.

About the Author

Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. Julie majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cambridge University, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. She's a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player currently residing in Carlsbad, Calif. Email Julie at jjacobson@ehpub.com

Comments

“Switchers have been dead for years…IP is the only answer” - the point of this article is that switchers are now being virtualized via network infrastructure. You seem to be conflating multiple media players accessing a shared pool of content over a network (hardly a new concept) with transporting AV directly over the network to multiple displays from a single media player - a seemingly small but very important distinction. Cord cutting and AV distribution are completely different topics.

Hopper/Genie, Tivo/Minis, streaming devices with apps - sure, you can design a system based around these, where you put one or more dedicated media players behind each TV, and each of those players accesses remote content. This may be fine for a small or even a medium sized home, but you are limited to the number of streams that can be used at once (Sling and DirecTV Now only allow 2-3 simultaneous streams per account, Netflix similar, etc), just like there are limitations to the number of Sat, Cable, Tivo players that can be supported on a single system. Further, there is no way to synchronize playback and control on multiple players - for example if you want to have a party and show the big game or a picture slideshow of the birthday boy or girl on several different TVs in your entertaining area(s), you have to find and play the content individually at every TV - and with on-demand content you’ll never get it synchronized, presenting a huge audio problem in a shared space.

So regardless of the source of the content, some type of switching/distribution system still makes a lot of sense for a lot of people, and that category is far from dead in all but the most basic of applications.

Posted by dbendell on September 26, 2018

Switchers have been dead for years, Dish and Directv put them to bed with Hopper/Genie, TIVO and now streaming on all apps. The consumer is dropping sat/cable and giving up on TV. IP is the only answer in today’s market place which is far and few between with the masses.

Posted by dbendell on September 26, 2018

Switchers have been dead for years, Dish and Directv put them to bed with Hopper/Genie, TIVO and now streaming on all apps. The consumer is dropping sat/cable and giving up on TV. IP is the only answer in today’s market place which is far and few between with the masses.

Posted by Paul Cunningham on September 27, 2018

“Switchers have been dead for years…IP is the only answer” - the point of this article is that switchers are now being virtualized via network infrastructure. You seem to be conflating multiple media players accessing a shared pool of content over a network (hardly a new concept) with transporting AV directly over the network to multiple displays from a single media player - a seemingly small but very important distinction. Cord cutting and AV distribution are completely different topics.

Hopper/Genie, Tivo/Minis, streaming devices with apps - sure, you can design a system based around these, where you put one or more dedicated media players behind each TV, and each of those players accesses remote content. This may be fine for a small or even a medium sized home, but you are limited to the number of streams that can be used at once (Sling and DirecTV Now only allow 2-3 simultaneous streams per account, Netflix similar, etc), just like there are limitations to the number of Sat, Cable, Tivo players that can be supported on a single system. Further, there is no way to synchronize playback and control on multiple players - for example if you want to have a party and show the big game or a picture slideshow of the birthday boy or girl on several different TVs in your entertaining area(s), you have to find and play the content individually at every TV - and with on-demand content you’ll never get it synchronized, presenting a huge audio problem in a shared space.

So regardless of the source of the content, some type of switching/distribution system still makes a lot of sense for a lot of people, and that category is far from dead in all but the most basic of applications.